The Pillar of Alexandria

185 years ago, on this day, the Alexander Column was installed in memory of the victories over Napoleon by Auguste Montferand. The grand opening of the monument took place exactly two years after its installation.

The column is crowned by the figure of the Angel, made by sculptor Boris Ivanovich Orlovsky. The face of the Angel at the request of Emperor Nicholas I was given the features of Alexander I.

The grandiose structure instilled admiration and awe in St. Petersburg, but our ancestors were seriously afraid that the Alexander Column would collapse, and tried to bypass it.

In order to dispel philistine fears, the architect Auguste Montferrand, who lived nearby, on the Moika, began to make a daily exercise around his brainchild, demonstrating complete confidence in his own safety and the correctness of calculations. Years passed, wars and revolutions, the column stands, the architect did not make a mistake.

There are many legends and legends associated with the monument.

In 1925, the presence of the figure of an angel on the main square of Leningrad was considered inappropriate. An attempt was made to cover it with a cap, which gathered a large number of passers-by on the Palace Square. A balloon hung over the column. However, when he flew to her at the required distance, the wind immediately blew and drove the ball away. In the evening, attempts to hide the angel stopped.

There is a legend that at that time, instead of an angel, they seriously planned to put a monument to Lenin. And they did not, because they could not decide in which direction Ilyich to extend his hand.

Another legend says that the next day after Gagarin’s flight into space at the feet of an angel crowning the pillar of Alexandria, a laconic inscription appeared: “Yuri Gagarin! Hurrah!” Which vandal was able to express his admiration for the first astronaut in this way and how he managed to climb to such a dizzying height will remain a mystery.